Are Mill’s arguments concerning the desirability of representative government in conflict with his arguments concerning the necessity for some peoples to be subject to despotic rule, indeed foreign rule? How or how not?

Instructions

• Read the assigned sections of Mill's Considerations on Representative Government and A Few Words on Intervention.
• It is also useful sometimes to read some of the secondary scholarship on Mill, to understand better what Mill says and to become aware of different interpretations. Such research should not be a substitute for reading and understanding Mill, but a good essay will normally contain some reference to it.
• Select a specific thesis: Mill's arguments on the desirability of representative government are, or are not, in conflict with his arguments for despotic rule in some circumstances. This is what you aim to support - your essay should be constructed in a way that provides evidence for your thesis.
• Briefly explain Mill's arguments about why representative government is ideally best (chapter 3 is key here) and about the conditions under which representative government is possible (chapter 4 is the key text here), as well as his reasons for believing that in some cases these conditions can be fostered by foreign rule (here chapters 4, 18, and A Few Words of Intervention will be most useful, but other parts of the Considerations help put these arguments in context).
• Are these two sets of arguments in conflict? Why, if representative government is best, is it not best in some circumstances? How can non-representative government create the kinds of characters necessary for representative government? Is Mill right that some peoples are not ready for democracy, in other words? Why or why not?
• The idea is to present Mill's views on why democracy is best, when it does not work, and then decide whether he has a problem (because, e.g., the conditions under which democracy does not work cannot be cured by the means he suggests, or because he does not identify correctly the conditions under which democracy does not work, or because the conditions under which democracy does not work can only be cured by democracy, etc.)

Resources